Riding into history

It was a cold December day in 1955, when Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Ala. It had been a long day for the seamstress when she took a seat near the middle of the bus, just behind the 10 seats reserved for Whites. It wasn't long before all the seats were filled, and a White man entered the Montgomery County bus. The driver demanded the four Blacks sitting just behind the White section give up their seats so the White man could sit. In that brief moment, Parks' courage collided with centuries of racist customs: She said "no."

That simple act of defiance, which inspired a Martin Luther King Jr.-led, 381-day boycott of the city's bus system and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the segregation law was unconstitutional, took place on a simple bus built by General Motors Coach Division.

Now nearly 50 years later, the bus which had been long forgotten but was so critical to that moment - has been found and restored.

After spending 30 years in a field, the bus was purchased in October 2001 by the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. It was badly damaged and corroded by exposure to the elements and had to undergo nearly five months of restoration beginning in September 2002. It was formally introduced for permanent exhibit Feb. 1.

The bus was restored down to the tiniest detail; for authenticity, conservation experts applied Alabama red dirt to the wheel wells and tire treads and period advertising was re-created for the interior and exterior of the bus. A $205,000 grant from the federal government's Save America's Treasures program helped the museum pay for the more than $300,000 restoration.

The bus will be the centerpiece of a permanent civil rights and social change exhibit at the museum. "This iconic bus was an opportunity for us to talk more about social changes in America," says Bill Pretzer, the museum's curator of political history.

Parks was arrested for violating Alabama's rigid segregation laws, and her arrest outraged an already tense African American community, which comprised 75 percent of the city's bus passengers. Her actions would ultimately spark a democracy movement that inspired not only Black Americans to rise up, but eventually millions of people of all races around the world - from South Africa to Eastern Europe - battling oppression. Parks, who has lived in the Detroit area for the past 45 years, recently turned 90 and is very feeble. Her longtime friend Elaine Eason Steele says Parks is glad the bus was renovated and put on display for a new generation to see. "She was just pleased that people have a symbol from that era that they can relate to," Steele says.

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated Mar/Apr 2003
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